A manic comedy-farce about friendship, revenge and summer madness set against the backdrop of the Notting Hill Carnival.
A Sterling Pictures / Walking Point / Orangetop production.
Length / Format: 96 mins / Feature film
Leslie as Aladdin in Lava
It's Carnival time in west London, but for so-called "soldier of fortune" Smiggy (Tucker) and supermarket shelf-stacker Philip (Holmes) there's more pressing business. They're seeking revenge on the thug who left Philip's brother braindead after a brawl in an amusement arcade.
Today sees the assailant's release on parole, and Smiggy and Philip decide to pay him a visit, having first purchased a revolver from Mr Aladdin (Grantham). But when they arrive at their target's address, his girlfriend Julie (Stapleton) assumes they must be the purchasers of the cocaine which she herself stole from some Yardies.
Assorted Press & Reviews
"Lava is imaginative, amusing and resourceful. Tucker's writing and directing debut are admirable - Lava is a gritty farce which manages to be shocking, entertaining and funny all at once. Here's a master of dialogue in the making - with the Yardie's lingo, Julie's hilarious colloquialisms and Smiggy's military talk, there are some gems of lines here, but Lava isn't for the squeamish - it's absolute carnage in that Notting Hill flat." - Annette Dasey - Teletext Big Screen
"I enjoyed it immensely. A tour-de-force, very successful. The plot is a tightly-wound machine. Ordinariness taken to fever pitch. Nicola Stapleton is brilliant and fantastic, bang on the money. I was very impressed." - Jason Solomons, The Big Picture BBC London
"Hilarious. A very funny dark comedy based around the Notting Hill carnival. It's brilliant, it's fantastic and has a great cast. " - Edith Bowman, Capital FM
"A dark-tinged revenge-comedy-drama that harvested strong reviews in the UK on its release. the film adeptly makes the awkward transition from gruesome, almost gleeful black comedy to a surprisingly potent tragic finale. Lava also features a strong ensemble performance from its cast." - Leslie Felperin, Moving Pictures
"A riotously funny black comedy" - Derby Metro
"A masterpiece of the character-driven drama. A powerful drama and a great cinematic experience. Joe Tucker plays Smiggy wonderfully and shows himself as a talented actor, writer and most of all director, with an original and firm storyline. Worth a lot of respect." - Jay Em, The Usher
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Hal (JAMES PUREFOY), an oversexed photographer, has a problem. He is due to marry Vinni (SUSAN VIDLER) in a week's time and he's got cold feet. In fact, he's got frostbite and wants out. Little Ted (TONY SLATTERY), a scheming, sexually frustrated cartoonist is obsessed with Vinni, even though he dumped her when they went out together. Both Little Ted and Hal have their own plans to disrupt the imminent wedding and they separately call upon Mr. Mac (ADRIAN DUNBAR), a world weary swimming coach, to help them out. However, Mr. Mac has a much bigger problem of his own, George (LESLIE GRANTHAM). He is the psychotic husband of barmaid Petula (AMANDA REDMAN), with whom Mr. Mac is having an affair.
On Hal's all day stag night, Little Ted sets in motion a disastrous chain of events when he convinces Mr. Mac to get Petula to seduce Hal in a pub lavatory so that he can record it on Polaroid. Hal, in the meantime, wants Mr. Mac to seduce Vinni so that he can catch them in flagrante, giving him the excuse to call off the wedding. On the rollercoaster ride that ensues little does Mr. Mac suspect that all along he is being stalked by George.
Salty (NEIL STUKE), another of Hal's reprobate mates, is going out with Clodagh (VICTORIA SMURFIT), Vinni's supposed best friend. Salty loves Clodagh but somehow, through no fault of his own, manages to find himself in a variety of bizarre situations with other women. One of whom is Felicity (SARA STOCKBRIDGE) who, Salty discovers, has a grotesque and disturbing leisure pursuit. Clodagh, however, has her own agenda. She is having an affair with Hal and she's planning on getting her hands on him on a permanent basis.
Meanwhile, Vinni has decided that she has no intention of marrying Hal and gate-crashes the pub crawl in order to finally have things out with him. In this Machiavellian comedy of errors, there is no saying who will end up with whom.
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Sci-fi meets hilarity in this wildly adventurous comedy that goes where no man—or moron—has gone before. We can now safely conclude that there is no intelligent life in space. Four holiday travelers from the planet Blob have somehow lost control of their rented spaceship and crash-landed on Earth. At first, the military and scientific teams assume they are higher life forms. But not for long. Idiocy is hard to hide.
The stranded wayfarers are complete morons, content to drink their green beer, sing ear-splitting pop songs and talk to trash cans, which they assume are the planet's leaders. But not until an enterprising journalist decides to market their dazed innocence and turn them into glitzy superstars do they find their true mission to Earth. With amusing parodies of famous film classics like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and warp-speed laughs, this is one screwball comedy that's out of this world.
Leslie had a small part in the film. He played a policeman!!!
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Charlie (2004) Starring: Luke Goss | Steven Berkoff | Leslie Grantham | Anita Dobson
Director: Malcolm Needs
Drama Released: July 12, 2004
Based on the life of real-life British gang boss, Charlie Richardson, who, along with his brother, Eddy, ruled the criminal underworld of South London in the early 1960s, the story charts what happens when Charlie gets involved with a South African businessman Richard Waldeck...
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Haskell (Michael Caine) is assigned a job by his boss, the aristocratic Landon-Higgins (James Fox), to highjack a high security van in broad daylight while it's in the shadow run (out of radio contact with the main security firm). He assembles a team to carry out the heist, but things don't go according to plan and Haskell begins to think his boss might be double crossing him. Add to this, a teenage boarding school pupil has already witnessed some of the meetings of the team and Haskell's in real trouble.
